Last Lion of Aleppo, 2017

handmade egg tempera on panel, 18 x 13 cm

White phosphorus bombs fracture the sky, raining down on the city. A Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital, protected by sandbags, is in ruins and Rose, a former trainer at the Aleppo Zoo, sits surrounded by animals. In a twist of fate, she joined the army where she is called Abu Ja’far, named after a lion that she raised at the zoo. As so many have lost their lives under bombs and starved under siege during the ongoing war in Syria, so passed away the last lion of Aleppo, where he was eaten by people.

This miniature references the story of Layla and Majnun, a love story between Qais ibn Al-Mulawah and Layla that took place in the 7th century Arabia. The poet Nizami Ganjavi also wrote a popular poem about their love story in the 10th century, which has been famously illuminated in manuscripts hundreds of times. Qays and Layla fall in love with each other when they are young, but when they grow up Layla’s father doesn’t allow them to be together. Qays becomes obsessed with her, and the community gives him the epithet Majnun (the mad one).

When Majnun learns of Layla’s marriage to another man, he flees the tribal camp and begins wandering the surrounding desert, where he befriends animals. He is said to be sometimes seen reciting poetry to himself or writing in the sand with a stick. This painting references that period of Majnun’s life, titled in period miniatures as 'Majnun in the Wilderness.'

Here, the reference to 'Majnun in the Wilderness' speaks to the heartbreak of so many Syrians unable to return to a home that no longer exists.

Migrant Shipwreck, 2015

handmade egg tempera, 15 x 10 cm

On unsteady boats, in pre-dawn darkness, many set out from Libya, where the breakdown in law and order has allowed people-smugglers free rein. Dangerously overcrowded with hundreds of others seeking safety and a better life, many sail for the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, a port of entry in to Europe.

Thousands of people have drowned crossing the sea from North Africa, and hundreds of thousands have survived - loosing lovers, best friends, & family members to the water. Those discovered off Libyan shores face detention, and those rescued in Italian waters enter a system overwhelmingly unprepared to provide for the needs of so many.

Libya Dawn Militants Play in the US Embassy Pool, 2015

handmade egg tempera, 18 x 10.5 cm

This piece is based on cell phone video footage posted online in August 2014 of members of the Libya Dawn Islamist-linked group — some in black paramilitary-appearing outfits, some in summertime civilian wear — as they played and did swan dives off a second-floor balcony into a swimming pool in an annex of the embassy in Tripoli. The diplomatic compound had been evacuated the month prior amid heavy fighting as Libya spiraled into all-out civil war more than three years after the toppling of longtime dictator Moammar Kadafi. The spectacle of a breached American diplomatic compound — even one empty of any personnel — stirs memories of the Benghazi attack nearly two years before that killed the then-ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. In this case, according to witnesses, the compound was not ransacked or looted, though some windows were broken, and the commander was quoted urging foreign envoys to return.

Sleepers of Gezi, 2015

handmade egg tempera, 18 x 10.5 cm

To contest the urban development plan for Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi Park a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Turkey began on 28 May, 2013. Subsequently, supporting protests and strikes took place across Turkey protesting a wide range of concerns, at the core of which were issues of freedom of the press, of expression, assembly, and the government’s encroachment on Turkey’s secularism. Now, having been spared destruction, Gezi Park and its famous sycamore trees have also become a sanctuary for many Syrian refugee families. In Turkey alone the total number of registered Syrian refugees (Istanbul’s refugees are mainly unregistered) has reached 2.7 million since the onset of the Syrian civil war. Here, those displaced by war sleep, roll their cigarettes and quietly congregate in the morning hours. Sisli Camii lies in the distance and through the trees cranes cross the sky. The Bosphorus forms a migration bottleneck for thousand of birds as they travel from Europe into the Middle East and Africa, a parallel and ancient narrative of mass movement between continents.

Isis Loots at Nimrud, 2016

handmade egg tempera on panel, 18 x 13 cm

Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian city near Mosul, Iraq that was by in large destroyed by the Islamic State last year, but only after looting all the more than two-thousand year old friezes from the site to sell on the black art market. In the distance is Palmyra in Syria, the UNESCO World Heritage site that the terrorist group would take shortly following the looting of Nimrud.

River Queiq Massacre, 2014

handmade egg tempera, 18 x 10.5 cm

The River Queiq used to be a river so sacred that it was forbidden to eat fish from its waters. Now it is known as the River of Martyrs. In late January 2013, during the Syrian Civil War the bodies of approximately 110 men and boys, most with hands bound behind the back, mouths sealed with tape, and gunshot wounds to the head, were found on the edges of the river in a part of Aleppo controlled by opposition forces. Very few of the victims were over 30. Many victims showed signs of torture. The bodies floated downstream from a government held portion of the river into a rebel held portion in the Bustan al-Qasr district.

Here citizens in opposition held Aleppo create a human chain to pull bodies from the river. Two wild dogs fight in cave, a reference to the brother and sister dogs in the Kalila and Dimna classical Middle Eastern animal fables and symbol of civil strife.

In the background are billowing explosion plumes, the tell tale sign of barrel bombs being dropped by government helicopters on the city.

Some of the imagery from this painting was inspired by the short documentary “Aleppo: a city abandoned by the world?” by Marcel Mettelsiefen, produced/directed by Teresa Smith and edited by Agnieszka Liggett.

Kadikoy Riots, 2014

handmade egg tempera, 18 x 10.5 cm

Protests against Turkey’s government flared up across the country in March 2014 after the death of Berkin Elvan, a boy who had been unconscious since being injured in the initial uprising during the summer of 2013. Elvan was walking to get bread at a local store in Istanbul when he was hit in the head with a tear gas canister. He was in a coma for 269 days before he passed away on March 11th, 2014. Depicted here are protests during the night of March 14th in the Kadıköy district of Istanbul, Turkey’s most populous city. Riot police fired water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets, as protesters set off fireworks and threw stones. This scene is inspired by social media depictions of clashes around Kadıköy’s Boga (Bull) Heykeli monument. The bull historically a symbol in the Mediterranean region of potency, sacrifice and guardianship.

Molhem Barakat & Al Kindi Hospital, 2014

handmade egg tempera, 18 x 10.5 cm

On 20 December, 2013 17 year-old photographer Molhem Barakat was killed reporting for Reuters during the battle for Al Kindi Hospital in Aleppo, Syria. His death raised many questions about the accountability of news agencies including training, wages, insurance, safety equipment, and under age employment of freelance, often local, journalists. Molhem’s photographs from Syria, taken while embedded with his brother rebel fighter, were published by the New York Times among others. British journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith who knew Molhem brought his story to the attention of the global community raising questions about how it was that an inexperienced teenager came to be working for a major news organization in a war zone. His story illuminates a changing demographic of reportage photographers and best practices within media agencies. Here Molhem’s spirit walks away from his fractured body and camera, while within the crumbling Al Kindi Hospital an adolescent attempts to keep an injured child alive with an oxygen bag.

Istiklal Riots, 2015

handmade egg tempera, 18 x 10.5

Police with rubber bullets, tear gas and water canons clash with protestors who launch fireworks on Istanbul’s iconic pedestrian commercial avenue, Isktilal Caddesi. Since the Gezi protests of summer 2013, some groups continue to take to the streets to confront their government. Several of the figures in this work are inspired by social media posts of pro-Kurdish activists demanding government action over IS militant attacks on the border town of Kobane in October 2014.

Kandahar Massacre, 2012

handmade egg tempera, 7 x 5 in

Early in the morning of Sunday, 11 March 2012, seventeen civilians were killed and five wounded in the Panjwai district of Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. Among the dead were four men, four women, two boys, and seven girls. A respected village elder lost 11 family members in the attack. United States Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, was taken into custody and charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of assault and attempted murder.

Destruction of Homs, 2012

handmade egg tempera, 7 x 5 in

Veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin stands in Homs, one of the most badly shelled civilian populations in Syria by the Syrian government. She was killed on February 22, 2012 going back to get her shoes from a bombed building. Her final recorded dispatch sent from Homs covered of the deaths of children in the bombardments. In the background is the Khalid ibn al-Walid mosque.

Out of Syria, 2012

handmade egg tempera, 7 x 5 in

Journalist Anthony Shadid passed away on February 16, 2012 from a severe asthma attack while being smuggled out of Syria by Syrian rebel fighters. Having walked beside the horses covering his face with a black and white scarf to protect himself from a horse allergy, he collapsed. His friend and colleague photographer Tyler Hicks tried to resuscitate him.

Mohamed Bouazizi, 2012

handmade, egg tempera, 7 x 5 in

On December 17, 2010, merchant Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in Tunisia in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides. His act became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring, inciting demonstrations and riots leading then President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power.

Last Supper, 2012

handmade egg tempera, 6 x 4 in

Inspired by Times photographer Tyler Hicks account of the night before Anthony Shadid died en route back to Turkey. Shadid was a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. Hicks:

There I found a carpeted room full of the fighters, now familiar to us … Directly across from me, amid cigarette smoke and sitting among them, was Anthony with a huge smile on his face. He put his arms out and said gleefully, ‘Tyler, look at this!’ … They served a dessert of sweet cheese, doused in a sticky syrup. They ad-libbed to incorporate us into the lyrics of one of their songs, thanking us for coming to Syria to witness their struggle.

Wedding in Tahrir Square, 2013

handmade egg tempera, 6 x 4 in

Pharmacologist from Dubai Dr. Ahmad Zaafan and Oula Abdul Hamid’s wedding in Tahrir Square Cairo, where they were participating in protesting the Egyptian government and calling for the resignation of then President Hosni Mubarak. Also depicted is the 6th October Bridge which crosses the Nile - one of the main arteries to Tahrir Square.

Cart Blunch, 2014

handmade egg tempera, 21.5 x 12 cm

A community of young Pakistani dancers and escorts live and work in Dubai. These girls come to the U.A.E. through covert channels to support their parents and siblings at home. They are usually first-born daughters, some as young as 14 years old. The specific young women in this painting dance for the migrant male laborer communtiy in a rundown hotel turned night club called "Cart Blunch" (carte blanche spelled wrong) in the district of Diera. Their contemporary story is combined with the ancient Middle Eastern tale from the Kalila wa Dimna of the crows burning the owls as they sleep.

Zaatari Camp, 2013

handmade egg tempera, 6 x 4 in

Since the onset of the current civil war, the total number of refugees from Syria has reached more than 2.7 million These people are residing primarily in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. This painting depicts the Zaatari Camp, one of the largest refugee settlements in Jordan. The patterns on the tents and textiles in my image are adapted from traditional clothing and linens and graphics of violent memories- both echoes within the collective psyche of the camp. Here, the inhabitants are invisible, presumably inside; reflecting a state of erasure, both of their former homes and former identities.